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PASTORAL  LETTER 


THE  BISHOPS  OF  THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 


TO  THE  CLERGY  AND  LAITY 


THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  CONFEDERATE  STATES 


OF    AMEBICA 


DEItfVERED  BEFORE  THE  GENERAL  COUNCIL,  IN  S.  PAUL'S 
CHURCH,   AUGUSTA,    SATURDAY,    NOV.  22,  1862. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2011  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/pastoralletterfrOOepis 


PASTORAL  LETTER 


At  your  request,  brethren  of  the  Clergy  and 
Laity,  we  conclude  the  session  of  our  First  General 
Council  by  presenting  to  you  and  reading  in  your 
presence  a  Pastoral  Letter,  addressed  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  scatter- 
ed throughout  the  Confederate  States.  By  the 
mighty  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  we  have  been 
permitted  to  bring  our  deliberations  to  a  close  in  a 
spirit  of  harmony  aiui  peace  which  augurs  well  for 
the  future  welfare  of  our  branch  of  the  Church 
Catholic  ;  and  our  first  duty  is  to  thank  Him  who 
has  promised  to  be  with  His  Church  to  the  end  of 
the  world,  for  His  presence  with  us  during  our  con- 
sultations, and  for  the  happy  conclusion  to  which 
He  has  brought  our  sacred  labors. 

Seldom  has  any  Council  assembled  in  the  Church 
of  Christ  under  circumstances  needing  His  presence 
more  urgently  than  this  which  is  now  about  to  sub- 
mit its  conclusions  to  the  judgment  of  the  Univer- 
sal Church.  Forced  by  the  providence  of  God  to 
separate  ourselves  from  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States— a  Church  with 
whose  doctrine,  discipline,  and  worship  we  are  in 
entire  harmony,  and  with  whose  action,  up  to  the 
time  of  that  separation,  we  were  abundantly  satis- 
fied— at  a  moment  when  civil  strife  had  dipped  its 
foot  in  blood,  and  cruel  war  was  desolating  our 
homes  and  firesides,  we  required  a  double  measure 
of  grace  to  preserve  the  accustomed  moderation  of 
the  Church  in  the  arrangement  of  organic  law,  in 
the   adjustment  of  our   code  of  canons,  but  above 


all,  in  the  preservation,  without  change,  of  those 
rich  treasures  of  doctrine  and  worship  which  have 
come  to  us  enshrined  in  our  Buok  of  Common 
Prayer.  Cut  off  likewise  from  all  communication 
with  our  sister  Churches  of  the  world,  we  have  been 
compelled  to  act  without  any  interchange  of  opin- 
ion even  with  our  Mother  Church,  and  alone  and 
unaided  to  arrange  for  ourselves  the  organization 
under  which  we  should  do  our  part  in  carrying  on  to 
their  consummation  the  purposes  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus.  We  trust  that  the  Spirit  of  Christ  has  in- 
deed so  directed,  sanctified,  and  governed  us  in  our 
work,  that  we  shall  be  approved  by  all  those  who 
love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity  and  in  truth, 
and  who  are  earnest  in  preparing  the  world  for  His 
coming  in  glorious  majesty  to  judge  both  the  quick 
and  the  dead. 

The  Constitution  of  the  ?rotestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  Confederate  States,  under  which  we 
have  been  exercising  our  legislative  functions,  is  the 
same  as  that  of  the  Church  from  which  we  have  been 
providentially  separated,  save  that  we  have  intro- 
duced into  it  a  germ  of  expansion  which  was  want- 
ing in  the  old  constitution.  This  is  found  in  the 
permission  which  is  granted  to  existing  Dioceses  to 
form  themselves  by  subdivision  into  Provinces,  and 
by  this  process  gradually  to  reduce  our  immense 
Dioceses  into  Episcopal  Sees,  more  like  those 
which  in  primitive  times  covered  the  territories  of 
the  Roman  Empire.  It  is  at  present  but  a  germ, 
and  may  lie  for  many  years,  without  expansion,  but 
being  there,  it  gives  promise,  in  the  future  of  a 
more  close  and  constant  Episcopal  supervision  than 
is  possible  under  our  present  arrangement. 

The  Canon  law,  which  has  been  adopted  during 
our  present  session,  is  altogether  in  its  spirit,  and 
almost  in  its  letter,  identical  with  that  under  which 
we  have  hitherto  prospered.  We  have  simplified  it 
in  some  respects,  and  have  made  it  more  clear  and 
plain  in  many  of  its  requirements  ;  but  no  changes 


have  been  introduced  which  have  altered  either  its 
tone  or  character.  It  is  the  same  moderate,  just, 
and  equal  body  of  Ecclesiastical  Law  by  which  the 
Church  has  been  governed  on  this  continent  since 
her  reception  from  the  Church  of  England  of  the 
treasures  of  an  apostolic  ministry  and  a  liturgical 
form  of  worship. 

The  Prayer  Book  we  have  left  untouched  in 
every  particular  save  where  a  change  of  our  civil 
government  and  the  formation  of  a  new  nation 
have  made  alteration  essentially  requisite.  Three 
words  comprise  all  the  amendment  which  has  been 
deemed  necessary  in  the  present  emergency,  for  we 
have  felt  unwilling,  in  the  existing  confusion  of  af- 
fairs, to  lay  rash  hands  upon  the  Book,  consecrated 
by  the  use  of  ages,  and  hallowed  by  associations 
the  most  sacred  and  precious.  We  give  you  back 
your  Book  of  Common  Prayer  the  same  as  you 
have  entrusted  it  to  us,  believing  that  if  it  has 
slight  defects,  their  removal  had  better  be  the 
gradual  work  of  experience  than  the  hasty  action 
of  a  body  convened  almost  upon  the  outskirts  of  a 
camp. 

Besides  this  actual  legislation  which  we  now  sub- 
mit to  you,  our  assembling  together  has  given  us  a 
view  of  the  condition  of  the  Church  throughout 
the  Confederate  States  which  renders  it  our  duty 
to  speak  to  you  as  Chief  Pastors  over  the  flock  of 
Christ,  reminding  you  of  the  peculiar  encourage- 
ments which  surround  us,  specifying  the  points  to- 
wards which  our  efforts,  as  a  Christian  Church, 
should  be  directed,  and  pointing  out  the  deficien- 
cies which  require  instaut  correction  and  amend- 
ment. No  moment  seems  so  propitious  for  the  per- 
formance of  this  duty,  as  that  iu  which  we  are  be- 
ginning a  new  life  in  the  Church,  and  are  preparing 
to  stamp  ourselves  upon  the  world  for  good  or  for 
evil. 

Our  highest  encouragement  is  derived  from  the 
fact   that  we  hold  the  sacred   trust  of  the   Faith 


once  delivered  to  the  saints,  and  that  we  hold  it  in 
connection  with  a  ministry  whose  succession  from 
Christ  and  His  Apostles  is  undoubted,  and  with  a 
form  of  worship  simple  and  pure,  yet  sublime  and 
scriptural.  These  are  not  gifts  to  make  a  boast  of, 
but  to  use  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  advance- 
ment of  Christ's  kiugdom.  Far  from  filling  us 
with  vain  glory,  their  possession  should  humble  us 
to  the  dust,  unless  we  approve  ourselves  faithful 
stewards  of  such  inestimable  treasures.  To  whom 
much  has  been  committed,  from  him  will  much  be 
required,  and  it  remains  for  us  to  prove  whether  we 
have  deserved  so  spiritual  an  inheritance.  But  pos- 
sessing them,  we  may  rightfully  feel  that  we  enter 
upon  our  warfare  with  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the 
devil,  having  all  the  strength  that  Divine  Truth 
and  a  Divine  Commission  can  give  us.  We  can 
press  on  without  any  doubts  resting  upon  our  hearts 
as  to  the  truth  which  we  are  teaching,  as  to  the 
validity  of  the  sacraments  which  we  are  administer- 
ing, or  as  to  the  authority  of  the  Orders  which  we 
are  transmitting.  Upon  all  these  points  we  are 
secure,  and  we  can  go  forward  offering  to  all  men, 
with  boldness  and  confidence,  the  Gospel  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  the  fellowship  of  the  saints. 
Whatever  hindrances  we  may  meet,  or  whatever 
contradiction  of  men  we  may  encounter,  we  can 
rest  assured  that  truth  will  finally  prevail,  and  that 
God  will  set  His  Son  upon  His  holy  hill  of  Zion. 

Our  next  source  of  encouragement  is  that  we  en- 
ter upon  our  work  with  our  Dioceses  fully  organiz- 
ed, and  with  the  means  which  Christ  has  instituted 
in  His  Church  well  distributed  throughout  the  Con- 
federate States.  When  we  remember  the  very  dif- 
ferent auspices  under  which  the  venerated  Fathers 
of  the  American  Church  began  their  work,  and  mark 
how  it  has  grown  and  prospered,  we  should  indeed 
take  courage  and  feel  no  fear  for  the  future.  In  their 
case  all  their  ecclesiastical  arrangements  had  to  be 
.  organized  ;  in  our  case  we  find  these  arrangements 


all  ready  to  our  hand,  and  with  the  seal  of  a  happy 
experience  stamped  upon  them.  In  their  case 
every  prejudice  of  the  land  was  strong  against 
them.  In  our  case  we  go  forward  with  the  leading 
minds  of  our  new  Republic  cheering  us  on  by  their 
communion  with  us,  and  with  no  prejudications  to 
overcome,  save  those  which  arise  from  a  lack  of  ac- 
quaintance with  our  doctrine  and  worship.  In  their 
case  they  were  indeed  few  and  separated  far  from 
one  another  in  their  work  upon  the  walls  of  Zion. 
In  our  case  we  are  comparatively  well  compacted, 
extending  in  an  unbroken  chain  of  Dioceses  from 
the  Potomac  to  the  confines  of  the  Republic.  De- 
spite all  these  disadvantages,  "  the  little  one  became 
a  thousand  and  the  small  one  a  stropg  nation,"  and 
shall  we  despond?.  If  we  be  watchful,  and 
strengthen  the  things  that  remain,  our  God  will  not 
forsake  us,  but  will  "lengthen  our  cords  and  stretch 
forth  the  curtains  of  our  habitations."  In  visible 
token  of  this  fact,  we  have  already,  since  our  or- 
ganization, added  to  the  House  of  Bishops  the  Rt. 
Rev.  Dr.  Wilmer  as  Bishop  of  Alabama,  and  re- 
ceived into  communion  with  the  Church  the  Diocese 
of  Arkansas. 

Another  source  of  encouragement  is  that  there 
has  been  no  division  in  the  Church  in  the  Confeder- 
ate States.  Believing,  with  a  wonderful  unanimity, 
that  the  providence  of  God  had  guided  our  foot- 
steps, and  for  His  own  inscrutable  purposes  had 
forced  us  into  a  separate  organization,  there  has 
been  nothing  to  embarrass  us  in  the  preliminary 
movements  which  have  conducted  us  to  our  presant 
position.  With  one  mind  and  with  one  heart  we 
have  entered  upon  this  blessed  work,  and  we  stand 
together  this  day  a  band  of  brothers,  one  in  faith, 
one  in  hope,  one  in  charity.  There  may  be  among 
us,  as  there  always  must  be,  minute  differences  of 
opinion  and  feeling,  but  there  is  nothing  to  hinder 
our  keeping  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of 
peace.     We  are  all  satisfied  that  we  are  walking  in 


8 

the  path  of  duty,  and  that  the  light  of  God's 
countenance  has  been  wonderfully  lifted  up  upon 
us.  He  has  comforted  us  in  our  darkest  hours,  and 
has  not  permitted  our  hearts  to  faint  in  the  day  of 
adversity. 

These  striking  encouragements  vouchsafed  to  us 
from  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  should 
fill  our  hearts  with  earnest  devotedness,  and  should 
lead  us  even  now  to  inquire,  "  Lord  what  wilt  Thou 
have  us  do  ?"  And  the  answer  to  this  question 
will  lead  us,  your  Chief  Pastors,  to  specify  the 
points  towards  which  our  efforts,  as  a  Christian 
Church,  should  be  especially  directed. 

Christ  has  founded  His  Church  upon  love — for 
God  is  Love.  It  is  the  highest  of  all  Christian 
graces.  "And  now  abideth  Faith,  Hope,  Charity, 
these  three,  but  the  greatest  of  these  is  Charity." 
Charity  !  not  mere  almsgiving,  which  is  only  one 
of  its  manifestations,  but  Love  I  Christian  Love  ! 
As  Christ  our  Lord  loved  the  world  so  divinely 
that  He  was  satisfied  to  suffer  all  things  for  its  re- 
demption, so  does  He  command  us  to  love  one  au- 
otber  and  to  be  ready  to  do  all  things  for  each 
other's  salvation.  This  was  His  especial  command- 
ment :  "A  new  commandment  give  I  unto  you,  that 
ye  love  one  another."  And  this  is  truly  not  only 
the  new  commandment,  but  the  summary  of  all  the 
commandments.  The  whole  Gospel  is  redolent  with 
it,  with  a  broad,  comprehensive,  all-embracing  love, 
appointed,  like  Aaron's  rod,  to  swallow  up  all  the 
other  Christian  graces,  and  to  manifest  the  spiritual 
glory  of  God  in  Christ.  A  Church  without  love  ! 
What  could  you  augur  of  a  Church  of  God  with- 
out Faith,  or  a  Church  of  Christ  without  Hope  ? 
But  Love  is  a  higher  grace  than  either  Faith  or 
Hope,  and  its  absence  from  a  Church  is  just  the 
absence  of  the  very  life-blood  from  the  body. 

Our  first  duty,  therefore,  as  the  children  of  God, 
is  to  send  forth  from  this  Council  our  greetings  of 
love  to  the  Churches  of  God  all  the  world  over. 


We  greet  them  in  Christ,  and  rejoice  that  they  are 
partakers  with  us  of  all  the  grace  whjch  is  treasur- 
ed up  in  Him.  We  lay  down  to-day  before  the  al- 
tar of  the  Crucified  all  our  burdens  of  sin,  and  of- 
fer our  prayers  for  the  Church  Militant  upon  earth. 
Whatever  may  be  their  aspect  towards  us  politically, 
we  cannot  forget  that  they  rejoice  with  us  "in  the  one 
Lord,  the  one  Faith,  the  oue  Baptism,  the  one  God  and 
Father  of  all,"  and  we  wish  them  God  speed  in  all  the 
sacred  ministries  of  the  Church.  Nothing  but  love 
is  consonant  with  the  exhibition  of  Christ's  love 
which  is  manifested  in  His  Church,  and  any  note 
of  man's  bitterness,  except  against  sin,  would  be  a 
sound  of  discord  mingling  with  the  sweet  harmonies 
of  earth  and  Heaven.  We  rejoice  in  this  golden 
chord  which  binds  us  together  in  Christ  our  Re- 
deemer, and  like  the  ladder  which  Jacob  saw  in 
vision,  with  the  angels  of  God  ascending  and  de- 
scending upon  it,  may  it  ever  be  the  channel  along 
which  shall  flash  the  Christian  greetings  of  the 
children  of  God. 

But  while  we  send  forth  this  love  to  the  whole 
Church  Militant  upon  earth,  let  us  not  forget  that 
special  love  is  due  by  us  towards  those  of  our  own 
household.  To  us  have  been  committed  the  treas- 
ures of  the  Church,  and  those  of  our  own  kindred 
and  lineage,  who  have  sprung  from  our  loins  both 
naturally  and  spiritually,  who  are  now  united  with 
us  in  a  sacred  conflict  for  the  dearest  rights  of 
man,  ask  us  for  the  bread  of  life.  They  pray  us 
for  that  which  we  are  commanded  to  give,"  the  Gos- 
pel of  the  grace  of  God,  They  put  in  no  claim  for 
anything  worldly — for  anything  alien  from  the  mis- 
sion of  the  Church.  Their  petition  is  that  we  will 
fulfil  the  very  purpose  of  our  institution,  and  give 
them  the  means  of  grace.  Every  claim  which  man 
can  have  upon  his  fellow-man  they  have  upon  us, 
and  having  these  claims  they  ask  only  for  the 
Church.  They  pray  us  not  to  let  them  perish  in 
the  wilderness  ;  not  to  permit  them  to  be  cut  off 


10       . 

from  the  sweet  communion  of  the  Church.  "  If," 
says  the  Apostle,  speaking  of  Christian  professors, 
and  alluding  to  mere  earthly  things,  "  any  provide 
not  for  his  own,  and  especially  for  them  of  his  own 
House,  he  hath  denied  the  faith,  and  is  worse  than 
an  infidel  ;"  what  shall  we  say  of  that  Church 
which  shall  not  provide  for  its  own  children  ?  How 
can  it  hope  to  be  watered  itself  with  gracious  rain 
from  Heaven,  when  it  hoards  up  for  itself  the  river 
of  life,  which  is  ordained  to  flow  through  its  chan- 
nels of  grace  ? 

Many  of  the  States  of  this  Confederacy  are  Mis- 
sionary ground.  The  population  is  sparse  and  scat- 
tered ;  the  children  of  the  Church  are  few  and  far 
between  ;  the  Priests  of  the  Lord  can  reach  them 
only  after  great  labor  and  privation.  Hitherto  has 
their  scanty  subsistence  been  eked  out  from  the 
common  treasury  of  our  united  Church.  Cut  off 
from  that  recourse  by  our  political  action,  in  which 
they  have  heartily  acquiesced,  they  turn  to  us  and 
pray  us  to  do  at  least  as  much  for  them,  as  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  do  for  the  Church  from  which 
they  have  been  separated  by  a  civil  necessity.  We 
can  do  what  they  ask,  and  we  ought  cheerfully  to  do 
it.  Unless  we  take  care  that  the  Gospel  is  sent  to 
these  isolated  children  of  the  Church,  who  will 
heed  their  cry  ?  They  have  no  Church  to  cry  to, 
but  the  Church  which  we  now  represent  ;  they  cast 
themselves  upon  us  in  full  faith,  that  we  will  do  our 
whole  duty  towards  them.  They  are  one  with  us 
in  faith,  in  care,  in  suffering  ;  they  are  bearing  like 
evils  with  those  which  disturb  us,  aud  they  have  no 
worship  to  cheer  and  support  them,  no  Gospel  to 
preach  to  them  patience  and  long-suffering.  For 
Christ's  sake  they  pray  that  they  may  be  given  at 
least  a  Mother's  bosom  to  die  upon. 

Voices  of  supplication  come  to  us  also  from  the 
distant  shores  of  Africa  and  the  East,  but  only 
their  echo  reaches  us  from  the  throne  of  grace. 
The  policy  of  man  has  shut   out    those   utterances 


11 

from  us.  How  it  can  help  their  cause  to  separate 
the  children  of  God  from  one  another,  He  only 
knows,  but  we  can  hear  them  when  we  kneel  in 
prayer,  and  commune  with  their  spirits  through 
the  Spirit  of  Christ.  But  God  is  perchance  intend- 
ing, through  these  inscrutable  measures,  to  shut  us 
up  to  that  great  work  which  He  has  placed  at  our 
very  doors,  and  which  is,  next  to  her  own  expan- 
sion, the  Church's  greatest  work  in  these  Confeder- 
ate States.  The  religious  instruction  of  the  ne- 
groes has  been  thrust  upon  us  in  such  a  wouderful 
manner  that  we  must  be  blind  not  to  perceive  that 
not  only  our  spiritual  but  our  national  life  is  wrap- 
ped up  in  their  welfare.  With  them  we  stand  or 
fall,  and  God  will  not  permit  us  to  be  separated  in 
interest  or  in  fortune. 

The  time  has  come  when  the  Church  should 
press  more  urgently  than  she  has  hitherto  done 
upon  her  laity,  the  solemn  fact,  that  the  slaves  of 
the  South  are  not  merely  so  much  property,  but  are 
a  sacred  trust  committed  to  us,  as  a  people,  to  be 
prepared  for  the  work  which  God  may  have  for 
them  to  do  in  the  future.  While  under  this  tute- 
lage He  freely  gives  to  us  their  labor,  but  expects 
us  to  give  back  to  them  that  religious  and  moral 
instruction  which  is  to  elevate  them  in  the  scale  of 
Being.  And  while  inculcating  this  truth,  the 
Church  must  offer  more  freely  htr  ministrations  for 
their  benefit  and  improvement.  Her  laity  must  set 
the  example  of  readiness  to  fulfil  their  duty  to- 
wards these  people,  and  her  clergy  must  strip  them- 
selves of  pride  and  fastidiousness  and  indolence, 
and  rush  with  the  zeal  of  martyrs,  to  this  labor  of 
love.  The  teachings  of  the  Church  are  those  which 
best  suit  a  people  passing  from  ignorance  to  civili- 
zation, because  while  it  represses  all  fanaticism,  it 
fastens  upon  the  memory  the  great  facts  of  our  re- 
ligion, and  through  its  objective  worship  attracts 
and  enchains  them.  So  far  from  relaxing,  in  their 
case,    the    forms   of   the   Church,    good    will  be 


12 

permanently  done  to  them  just  in  proportion 
as  we  teach  them  through  their  senses  and  their 
affections.  If  subjected  to  the  teachings  of  a 
bald  spiritualism,  they  will  find  food  for  their  senses 
and  their  child-like  fancies  in  superstitious  observan- 
ces of  their  own,  leading  too  often  to  crime  and  li- 
centiousness. 

It  is  likewise  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  press  up- 
on the  masters  of  the  country  their  obligation,  as 
Christian  men,  so  to  arrange  this  institution  as  not 
to  necessitate  the  violation  of  those  sacred  relations 
which  God  has  created,  and  which  man  cannot,  con- 
sistently with  Christian  duty,  annul.  The  systems 
of  labor  which  prevail  in  Europe  and  which  are,  in 
many  respects,  more  severe  than  ours,  are  so  arrang- 
ed as  to  prevent  all  necessity  for  the  separation  of 
parents  and  children,  and  of  husbands  and  wives,  and 
a  very  little  care  upon  our  part,  would  rid  the  sys- 
tem upon  which  we  are  about  to  plant  our  national 
life,  of  these  unchristian  features.  It  belongs,  espe- 
cially, to  the  Episcopal  Church  to  urge  a  proper 
teachiug  upon  this  subject,  for  in  her  fold  and  in 
her  congregations  are  found  a  very  large  proportion 
of  the  great  slaveholders  of  the  country.  We  re- 
joice to  be  enabled  to  say  that  the  public  sentiment 
is  rapidly  becoming  sound  upon  this  subject,  and 
that  the  Legislatures  of  several  of  the  Confederate 
States  have  already  taken  steps  towards  this  con- 
summation. Hitherto  have  we  been  hindered  by 
the  pressure  of  abolitionism  ;  now  that  we  have 
thrown  off  from  us  that  hateful  and  infidel  pesti- 
lence, we  should  prove  to  the  world  that  we  are 
faithful  to  our  trust,  and  the  Church  should  lead  the 
hosts  of  the  Lord  in  this  work  of  justice  and  of 
mercy. 

Another  duty,  which,  for  the  present,  devolves 
upon  the  Church,  is  an  oversight  of  the  children  of 
God,  as  they  lie  without  religion  and  without  Chris- 
tian care  iu  the  camps  and  hospitals  of  our  Govern- 
ment.  Far  be  it  from  us  to  say  that  there  has  been 


13 


no  Christian  supervision  of  our  soldiers,-  and  we 
cheerfully  concede  ajl  praise  and  thanks  to  those 
who  have  done  their  duty  through  danger  and  pri- 
vation; but  we  must  affirm  that  there  is  still  a  great 
lack  of  service  on  the  Church's  part  in  this  connec- 
tion. From  whatever  cause  it  has  arisen,  whether 
from  the  scarcity  of  clergymen,  or  from  unwilling- 
ness to  bear  the  hardships  of  the  soldier's  life,  we 
are  obliged  to  acknowledge  that  we  have  been  un- 
able to  find  men  who  were  willing  to  answer  this 
call  and  to  take  their  places,  not  as  soldiers  fighting 
for  their  country,  but  as  soldiers  fighting  for  the 
victory  of  Christ  over  sin  and  death.  In  the  opin- 
ion of  the  House  of  Bishops,  no  position  is  more 
suited,  at  this  moment,  to  the  true  spirit  of  Christ 
and  His  Church,  than  that  of  a  faithful  minister  of 
the  grace  of  God  and  of  the  Sacraments  of  the 
Church  to  the  soldiers  in  the  field,  or  in  the  hospital; 
and  we  would  urge  it  upon  those  ministers  who  have 
been  exiled  from  their  parishes,  to  enter  upon  this 
work  as  their  present  duty,  trusting  for  support  to 
Him  who  has  said  "  I  will  never  leave  thee  nor  for- 
sake thee." 

The  most  striking  deficiency  in  the  Church's  work 
which  we  perceive  in  looking  at  the  Church's  life,  is 
a  lack  of  zeal  in  spreading  the  influences  of  the 
Church  through  her  services  and  Sacraments.  Our 
ministry  has  become  too  local  and  sedentary,  too 
well  satisfied  to  sit  down  and  do  the  work  which  it 
has  undertaken  to  do,  and  overlooking  the  fields  white 
for  the  Harvest  which  are  spread  out  all  around 
them,  and  which  cannot  be  cultivated  save  through 
their  agency.  Every  well  established  congregation 
should  consider  itself  as  a  centre  of  Missionary 
work,  and  should  encourage  its  pastor  to  extend 
his  usefulness  beyond  its  own  limits,  and  while  he  is 
a  priest  to  them,  to  be  in  some  measure  a  Mission- 
ary to  all  about  him.  As  long  as  the  selfish  idea 
is  indulged,  that  a  minister  is  tied  down  to  a  local 
congregation,  and  has  no  business  to  work    around 


14 

him,  the  .Church  must  languish,  or  increase  but  slow- 
ly. Missionaries  cannot  be  furnished  for  every  vil- 
lage and  neighborhood,  and  they  must  remain  un- 
cared  for  by  the  Church,  unless  the  settled  clergy  will 
make  up  their  minds  to  extend  the  sphere  of  their 
operations  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  their  own 
immediate  cures. 

Another  deficiency  which  requires  amendment,  is 
the  little  spiritual  intercourse  which  takes  place 
among  the  clergy  in  their  work  for  the  Church. 
Each  man  works  in  his  sphere,  but  for  the  most 
part  he  gives  nothing  to  his  brother  clergyman,  and 
receives  nothing  from  him  in  return.  When  our 
Lord  sent  forth  His  Apostles,  He  sent  them  two 
by  two,  for  the  evident  purpose  that  they  should 
support,  strengthen,  and  comfort  each  other.  The 
spirit  of  this  action  is  very  much  overlooked  in  the 
Church,  and  the  clergy  are  weakened  by  it.  While 
the  House  of  Bishops  would  not  specify  any  mode 
by  which  this  defect  should  be  remedied,  it  would 
recommend  to  the  clergy  a  more  free,  spiritual,  in- 
tercourse, a  more  frequent  interchange  of  clerical 
services,  greater  communion  in  prayer  and  iu  coun- 
sel. Many  a  despondent  heart  would  thus  be 
cheered,  and  many  a  weak  brother  would  be  com- 
forted and  strengthened. 

Another  deficiency  which  requires  amendment,  is 
the  little  spiritual  help  which  is  given  to  the  clergy 
by  the  Laity.  We  have  no  reference  now  to  the 
temporal  support  of  the  clergy,  although  we  might 
well  dwell  upon  that,  but  to  the  spiritual  help 
which  a  Christian  Laity  might  give  to  the  clergy. 
In  reading  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  we  find  mauy 
illustrations  of  this  truth,  aud  we  perceive  how  the 
greatest  of  the  Apostles  was  not  above  the  help  of 
his  yoke-fellows  in  the  Gospel.  There  are  many 
ways  iu  which  spiritual  aud  earnest  Laymen  can 
help  their  clergy  in  the  work  of  the  Church,  and 
under  their  guidance  and  direction,  can  become 
valuable  Missionaries  of  Christ,  even  while   unor- 


15 


darned  It  requires  sacrifice  and  self-denial,  but 
we  must  all  remember  that  we  are  not  our  own  but 
are  bought  with  a  price,  and  belong  to  Christ 
body,  soul,  and  spirit.  ' 

But  over  and  above  all  these  special  deficiencies 
looms  up  that  greatest  of  all  deficiencies,  the  lack 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  and  with  our  Churches      Be- 
cause of  the  degree  to  which  spiritual  influences 
have  been  abused  in  our  land,  we  have  been  tempted 
to  run  into  the  other  extreme,   and  to  forget  that 
we  are  living  under  what  the  Apostle  calls  the  dis- 
pensation of  the  Spirit,  and  that  the  Church's  work 
must  derive  all  its  power  from  His  presence.     Our 
danger  is  to  merge  the  Holy  Ghost  into  the  means 
of  grace,  and  overlook  the  important  fact  that  He 
is  a  personal  agent,    acting   indeed    through  those 
means,  but  not  necessarily  tied  to  them      Our  Sa- 
viour said I:    "The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth, 
and  thou  nearest  the  sound  thereof,  but  canst  not 
tell  whence  it  cometh  or  whither  it  goeth:  so  is  everv 
one  that  is  born   of  the   Spirit."     And  as  with  the 
individual   so  with   the   Church.     The  Holy  Spirit 
will  be  in  the  Church,  if  His  presence  is  kept  there 
by  an  acknowledgment  of  His  power,  by  a  sense  of 
His   necessity,  by  a  constant  prayer  for  His  pres- 
ence ;  but  the  addresses  to  the  Churches   in  Asia 
Minor  instruct   us  to   be  watchful   over   ourselves 
and  to  hold  fast  by  Him  who  is  the  representative 
of  Christ  upon  earth,  while  He  is  interceding  and 
advocating  for  us  in  Heaven.     Let  the  Church  and 
her  Ministers  always  bear  in  mind,  that   the  growth 
of  the  Church,  and  the  vitality  of  the  Church,  are 

And  now  it  only  remains  for  us  to  bid  you,  one 
and  all  an  affectionate  farewell.  We  cannot  but 
remember  that  when  we  last  separated  from  you 
there  stood  among  us  two  venerated  brethren! 
dearly  beloved  in  the  Lord,  who  have  since  entered 
into  their  rest.     When  we  parted  we  knew  it  must 


16 

be  so,  bnt  we  could  not  foresee  where  the  hand  of 
Death  would  fall.  And  now  again  we  know,  that 
separating  once  more  for  the  like  space  of  time,  we 
shall  not  all  meet  again.  Whose  shall  be  the  sum- 
mons ?  Well  for  us  that  the  curtain  of  God's 
providence  hides  this  knowledge  from  us,  teaching 
us  the  lesson  of  Christian  truth,  that  we  must  all 
watch  and  be  sober,  because  we  know  neither  the 
day  nor  the  hour  when  the  Son  of  Man  cometh. 
May  God's  gracious  providence  guide  you  in  safety 
to  your  homes,  and  preserve  them  from  the  desola- 
tions of  war.  And  should  we  not  be  permitted  to 
battle  together  any  more  for  Christ  in  the  Church 
militant,  may  we  be  deemed  worthy  to  be  members 
of  the  Church  triumphant,  where  with  prophets, 
apostles,  martyrs,  saints,  and  angels,  we  may  as- 
cribe honor  and  glory,  dominion  and  praise,  to  Him 
that  sitteth  upon  the  Throne,  and  to  the  Lamb, 
forever  ! 


Hollinger  Corp. 
pH  8.5 


